Regional Solutions Demanded

OFFICIALS FROM Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties deserve praise for increasingly acting to take advantage of a regional approach to solving common problems.

The three school boards and county commissions have met jointly in recent months and now efforts are under way to create a joint committee for tri- county transportation planning.

Officials in each county are now trying to decide who should represent them on the committee, expected to meet before the end of the year. This six-member advisory committee will include one person from each county`s Metropolitan Planning Organization, two from the local Department of Transportation office and one from the DOT office in Tallahassee. The first year, its authority will cover $385,000 in state and federal planning funds.

A proposed tri-county commuter rail project, linking Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, provided the impetus for joint planning among three formerly parochial groups of county officials who often wasted energy squabbling, duplicating each other`s efforts and protecting political turf.

Transportation -- including construction of highways, commuter rail, bus and monorail systems -- is a perfect example of an issue that can reap great benefits through this multi-county approach. Planning for roads cannot and must not stop at the county line.

Hundreds of thousands of people live in one county and work, shop and play in other counties. A road network planned and designed to serve the needs of Broward, without also considering the needs of Palm Beach and Dade, will be of little value to anyone. Making a commuter rail service feasible demands that it serve people in all three counties.

This trend toward regional government planning, problem-solving and decision- making must continue and expand, if South Florida is ever to have adequate services to cope with soaring population growth.